Tesla Announces “World’s Best” Warranty

A lot of people in advertising seem to think they can add instant credibility to their marketing message by adding a superlative or two to the copy.

Calling a product or service the “best” or the “biggest” or the “most” is pretty common practice, but this rarely means anything, since such labels are typically subjective marketing speak and used everywhere, all the time.

Tesla Motors posted a piece on its blog Friday announcing the “World’s Best Service and Warranty Program.” Well, that’s a mighty bold statement to make, but then again, Tesla is a pretty bold company and tends to back up what it says.

When Hyundai wanted to become a respected automaker in the United States, it backed its products up with a 100,000-mile warranty. Consumers ate it up, sales increased, and the company has moved well upmarket. Tesla is seeing exceptional success as a startup automaker, but faces an extraordinary battle in converting skeptics hung up on reliability questions and the range of its battery packs.

The best way to put people at ease, as Hyundai demonstrated, is to give them the peace of mind of a strong warranty. Tesla’s newly announced program should do the trick.

When you need service on your Tesla, the company will bring a loaner car to you, pick up your vehicle, then deliver it back when service is complete. The loaner vehicle won’t be a stripped-down basic car, either. Instead you’ll drive a new top-spec Model S Performance or, if you prefer, a Roadster. Naturally, you can elect to keep the loaner if you like it better than your car, at a slight discount.

Here’s the real selling point of the warranty, though: The battery pack is now covered without condition. If the pack fails for any reason, including user error, the company will replace it at no charge. In his post, company CEO Elon Musk said,

The battery pack in your car is obviously very important and expensive to replace. In developing the Model S, we took great care to ensure that the battery would protect itself, always retaining a few percent of energy. If something goes wrong, it is therefore our fault, not yours.

In the same post, Musk said he believes his company can provide battery packs with a 500-mile range within 4 to 5 years. The reasons to consider a Tesla just keep piling up, don’t they?

While it may not be the “world’s best” warranty, it certainly seems to be a good one, and there’s no reason to believe Tesla won’t deliver on it. Good warranties win customers, and there could be lots more in Tesla’s future.

I was sure you’d mention Hyundai’s warranty, which was instrumental in taking a mediocre quality cheapo car and establishing it as a successful brand in this country. (and the added success helped them improve and upscale their products.)
Face it, most car buyers don’t want “excitement”, they want reliable reasonably priced transportation and no surprises in the service department.
I believe that Tesla’s founder, Elon Musk, might be the smartest person since Einstein and Edison, and he quickly recognized that the battery problems with his cars were scaring away customers. Who wants to pay $75,000 for an electric car and then get a $40,000 bill when the battery planks? I suspect Musk’s engineers will add some safeguards to help prevent planking and keep their warranty costs under control, but the full warranty will really help consumer confidence with the Tesla.